An interesting tidbit in a lengthy Times story about patents: “Last year, for the first time, spending by Apple and Google on patent lawsuits and unusually big-dollar patent purchases exceeded spending on research and development of new products, according to public filings.” What if they were researching creating new patents, eh? Eh? Did you think of that, smart guy?

Dan Moren Contributor

Dan has been writing about all things Apple since 2006, when he first started contributing to the MacUser blog. Since then he's covered most of the company's major product releases and reviewed every major revision of iOS. In his "copious" free time, he's usually grinding away on a novel or two.More by Dan Moren